


Book Five:  Healing

by YesBothWays



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: And then it only made sense to include the Avatar state too, Bisexuality, Canon Bisexual Character, F/F, Femslash, Fire Forest, I couldn't find a story where Korra used bending during sex, It's not just for fighting turns out, Magic, Spirit World, Water of Dreams, lots of story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-10 07:45:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6946207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YesBothWays/pseuds/YesBothWays
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another take on Korra and Asami's journey in the Spirit World.  The two of them unravel many threads of harm done to the Spirit World and themselves in the past while their relationship deepens.  After a brief time of rest in the first chapter, they fall into a series of encounters with spirits that lead them on quests into underground caverns to find the Water of Dreams, to a Shepherdess's hut where a great healer lives, and to the still burning heart of the Fire Forest, a place where living wood burns from within without being consumed though a magic cloud covering has lingered there for years and nearly killed the trees.  I rated this M to be safe on the rather transparent love scene between two women, but it's not exceptionally smutty.  Lots of story and relationship surround the sex in this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In a New Light

            Asami looked down to see the droplets of water on her legs flashing in the light of the sunset. She turned her legs a little back and forth to make the light dance, and she felt her muscles were slightly sore. The feeling was a good one. She stretched her shoulders and back and leaned back onto her hands. They pressed into the soft moss beneath her. She could just make out the golden, bright point in the sky where the spirit portal reached its height. The place was far away on the horizon. They had made their way over an impressive distance in the last seven days, caught still in an intense, action-driven mindset after leaving their familiar world. They kept up a hard pace and wore themselves out everyday as if driven by some dire mission. Now that they were deeper in, they had finally begun to slow down.

            Today, they had followed a river down into a valley. There were large, red rocks that seemed to somehow absorb and amplify the heat from the sun. They shed their coats, and eventually even their packs felt hot against their backs. The water became too tempting. So they shed their packs and outer clothes. Korra dove right in, while Asami laughed. She went behind a rock and changed into some swimming clothes. Korra had thrown a catch of fish onto the banks before Asami even waded out into the water. The river water was cool and slow moving. They stayed in the water for hours and hopped out at times to sit on the thick moss along the banks. Korra took a minute to make a perfect bed of coals and put their dinner on to cook.

            Camping with Korra was more like cheating than Asami had imagined it would be. During the one harsh, unexpected rainstorm that had come upon them so far during their trip, she even created a dome of air to keep off the rain while they built up a shelter. She even stripped a patch of wild rice using air bending and filled a bottle with it in only minutes. The slow cooking felt like a sign to Asami that they had finally relaxed their pace. Usually, Korra torched everything rapidly. Asami thought perhaps they were both intimidated by the feel of no longer being driven by any outside purpose, afraid of the feel of stillness and peace, afraid of what would surface. In this moment, she could feel the unprocessed grief in her own chest, draped over her heart like a weight. She pictured it as a heavy, waterlogged, woolen blanket. The distance from the material world and her work meant that she could not find shelter from her past by driving herself hard at various projects as she had for several years. She was glad to be able to let go of the habit, but her insides felt rattled, disorganized. Her own inner world felt unfamiliar in a way, unsettling.

            She sat now and carefully watched both the light changing with the sunset and also Korra swimming with the grace of a dolphin-swordfish. She felt her own eyes smiling as she watched. Korra was the one comfort, a place of connection that felt both familiar and also somehow new. They had never had one another’s full attention like this before, especially not for days on end without any distractions. Asami felt almost shy. The love she felt for Korra burned with a nurturing warmth in her chest and seemed to slowly be unfolding, allowing itself to become more fully known.

            Korra came out of the water. She stood for a moment, bending the water out of the underwear she was wearing, a Southern Water Tribe style of garment that reminded Asami of a short, small version of Mako’s swimming pants. They were tied with two strings: one to draw closed the front and another along the band to keep them settled over Korra’s hips. She turned her back to Asami and took the wrap from around her chest and threw it over a rock. She stripped the water of it with a single gesture.

            Asami watched Korra's back to get some idea of how she placed the elaborate wrap across her chest. There was clearly a particular pattern that made it cross over, layer properly, and remain in place despite all her free and often aggressive movements during the day. She had never seen anything that reminded her of this peculiar garment before. She had to wonder who designed Korra's clothes and how unique they were, and whether they were the invention of her mother or some other special tailor in the South. Her mind played over the idea of a young Korra destroying all of her clothing with her wild fighting and bending, or perhaps just protesting any restrictive garments outright. She imagined the impasse Korra would present would have to lead to innovations.

            She nearly laughed at her own thoughts, and Korra came to sit beside her on the comfortable moss on the banks. They sat facing the elegant light pouring over the horizon. Korra was strangely quiet. Asami noticed in the line of her back that she seemed to have grown uneasy, and her mind flicked over possible reasons why that she could decipher. She realized that she had not even considered the thought that Korra might grow self-conscious at having her body this exposed, so she had not hidden that she had been looking over at her. She regretted that a little now and wondered if she might think of something to say.

            "Were you noticing how much my body has changed?" Korra asked her with her characteristic candor, and Asami felt relieved at once.

            "No," Asami said. "To be honest, I don't remember seeing very much of your body before."

            "Yeah, I guess not," Korra said.

            "You mean changed since last year?" Asami said.

            "Yeah," Korra said. "I'm a lot smaller now."

            Asami considered the distress in Korra's tone and tried to get that to match with the sight of the hard-won muscles in Korra's arms, legs, and side. She could feel a perplexed look on her own face. She found it difficult to take the idea of Korra's body being considered small seriously, but the uncharacteristic way that Korra had assumed that Asami was noticing and judging her body meant that the impression was deep in Korra’s mind.

            "You don't look small to me," Asami said simply.

            They sat quiet for a while. Asami considered a little purple in the quality of the light that she did not quite recognize from the material world. Korra was looking at her own leg in the bright light, Asami realized. She seemed lost in her thoughts. She turned to see Asami watching her and still seemed distant for a moment. She must have realized that Asami's look was a curious one. She ran her hand over her shin.

            "You can really see my scars in this light," Korra said.

            She held her arm out to Asami. Asami took Korra's forearm in her hands. She looked closely at Korra's skin, deeply curious.

            "See them?" Korra asked.

            There were little, pale dots of scar tissue peppered over Korra's skin. They looked as if fine needles had punctured her skin dozens, maybe even hundreds of times. The pattern seemed random, organic. They were beautiful in a way, Asami thought. Her fingers ran over Korra's skin.

            "What are they from?" Asami asked.

            "I guess they're from where the poison was forced through my skin. I've got them on my arms and legs both. It took me a long time to notice them," Korra said.

            "Do they bother you?" Asami asked.

            "No," Korra said. "I don’t mind them. I do mind being scrawny, though."

            Asami tried to consider this rationally for a moment. If Korra was scrawny, what was everyone else? She was not sure what to make of such an idea. But it was clearly more emotional, more personal.  

            "I mean, you actually know your body is still totally hot, right?" Asami said.

            "It's not that," Korra said with a shrug that genuinely assured Asami that she really was not thinking about her appearance. Korra sat looking at her legs still and frowning. "It's just that sometimes, I can't believe this is my body. I can't believe it's really me. I feel weaker – changed still. I wonder if it will ever really be the same."

            Asami put a hand on Korra's naked shoulder. Her skin was still a little damp and cool from the water evaporating away. She felt herself caught between taking Korra's emotional state entirely seriously and finding her ideas about herself outrageous. Korra grew self-conscious, realizing some part of this from Asami's expression and felt her cheeks burn a little. She turned away.

            "I mean, you're going to keep on healing. But you're also going to keep on fighting. And you're also going to keep on aging, you know. Bodies go through transformations all the time. Maybe you should have an open-mind about what your body should be like," Asami said.

            Korra turned to look at her, feeling at least open to these ideas. She did not resonate with them, though. She wondered if she could even convey what she meant. She was not sure what else she could say.

            "Are you sure it doesn't feel like you?" Asami questioned her.

            "It feels broken," Korra said.

            "The real you can only feel strong?" Asami said. "That's a really hard standard to maintain."

            They sat in quiet. Korra tried to really consider the idea that had formed in her mind from what Asami had said. Maybe this was really her now. Maybe this was what she felt like, like someone who had been broken before.

            "I can't say that I know how you feel," Asami said, capturing Korra's attention again, "But I think I've felt something somewhat like this before. When my mom died, I used to wake up everyday and have these few seconds before I realized. Then it would sort of settle on me in a flash with this intolerable weight, and it felt like it changed everything. I felt really estranged from my own life, like I was waiting for things to go back to normal, even though I knew they never could be the same again."

            Korra felt a pang of empathy in her chest. Asami's hands were resting on her own knees. Korra placed her hand over the back of one.

            "Did it finally change one day?" Korra said.

            "No," Asami said, "Not really. It changed over time. I still remember when I noticed that I felt like myself again. I was out alone in a courtyard at the back of the house on a foggy morning. I was practicing this combination of kicks, and I finally got it right. I could feel my body moving in this perfect, fluid pattern. I did it over and over. And when I stopped and caught my breath, suddenly I felt like I was really me. I wondered even then when it had happened and whether it would last. I think it did."

            "That's beautiful," Korra said.

            Asami sat clearly in deep thought for another moment. Then she took Korra by surprise. She sat up and turned herself more towards Korra. She reached with both hands and touched her arm. Korra could feel the expression of astonishment on her face, as Asami ran both her hands down Korra's arm. She touched her back and ran her hand up her thigh. The gesture was searching, swift but not rushed. The gesture had caught her by surprise, but the feel of it was what took her completely off her guard. She felt quite distinctly how the muscles in her chest and thighs wanted to shiver at the touch, and a heat seemed to be springing up inside of her.

            "You feel like Korra to me," Asami said in a definitive tone, as if she had been running a diagnostic test on some new system she had designed.

            Korra grinned at the kind-hearted joke and felt tears wanting to form in her eyes. She might have laughed if there were not a grave edge to all of this. Asami smiled back at her. She let her hand slip down Korra's shoulder blade and over her back before she turned to sit still and facing the water again beside her.  

            That night, as they were lying each in their own bedding with their backs to one another and a circle of small fires around them, Korra's mind suddenly turned over a stone. Her eyes came open. Asami had called Korra's body hot, she realized. She felt the corners of her tired mouth grin, and her heart picked up. She wrapped both arms around the middle of her stomach and nestled into the blankets a bit. Asami was basically the hottest. So if she thought Korra was hot, that was pretty great. The thought was still held in her mind as she fell asleep.


	2. The Fog That Lifted

            Korra awoke before the sun came up over the edge of the horizon. She put her hands behind her head and lay back in her bedroll. She breathed deeply and willed herself to stay relaxed. The fires around them had died down to embers and only a few flames. Since they entered the Spirit World, she had grown used to finding a little spirit or two nestled in close to the fires or even right up against her sleeping body. She was glad to find no uninvited bedfellows hiding out this morning. But she was not startled when a rustling and a few sparks came from one of the fires when she sat up. She couldn’t see who it was in the dark, but nothing about its aura felt threatening to her.

            She made a flame in her palm, pushed the remaining pieces of wood around, and got a little fire built up. The line of a little face peered from behind a rock, perfectly still. By the look of it, some small creature was waiting to see if she was any threat.

            “It’s okay,” Korra said. “You can come close. It’s safe.”

            That did not garner a response at first. Korra began to make some tea. She found the little creature out in the open next to the rock when she looked over again. It looked almost like hedgehog-porcupine with distinct, brown spikes.

            “You want to come get warmed up?” Korra said.

She held a flame in her palm, and the little creature stepped forward as if drawn towards the fire against its other instincts. It bristled with a shrug, as if bolstering itself. Then it became suddenly far more animated, as it licked its paws and rubbed them over its muzzle. It blinked and twitched its nose towards Korra.

            “Don’t mind if I do,” it said.

            Korra put some wild rice and split, black peas into a metal pot and screwed the top down onto it. By the time a little jet of steam came out, allowing the contents to cook under pressure and finish far more quickly, the little creature nearly had its feet in the fire beside the pot. Korra smiled as it relished in the heat the flames, holding its paws forward and rubbing wafting heat over its face and belly like water, and shimmying the longer quills on its tail towards the flames. Suddenly, as if catching alight in some mysterious and internal way, the creature began to glow in shades of red, orange, and yellow.

            “You’re beautiful!” Korra said in astonishment.

            The little creature grew noticeably bashful.

            “You’ve never seen a Flaming Quills before?” it said modestly.

            “No,” Korra said.

            “Well, there used to be hundreds of us in the Fire Forest. We’re scattered all over now.”

            “Oh, dear. What happened to the Fire Forest?” Korra said.

            “It’s fallen under the Doom Cloud now,” it said.

            Asami sat up behind Korra. The creature startled but didn’t run. Instead, it got up and nestled itself in even closer to the fire with its back towards the flames.

            “Two women traveling together?” it said.

            “Yeah,” Korra said. “That a surprise?”

            “Do you get along?” it asked.

            “Uh… of course, we do,” Korra said.

            “I don’t mean to pry. It just seems you’d end up fighting.”

“Why?” Korra said.

“I mean, like, competing with each other. What if you like the same fellow or something?” it said.

            “Been there, done that,” Korra said. “We’re on a new chapter now.”

            “That’s refreshing, I suppose,” it said.

            They ate breakfast and chatted with their little, delighted visitor. They lost its company immediately when they mentioned presence of the new spirit portal. Apparently, the light and heat near a portal was akin to flames. Asami pointed out the light of the portal against the sky, and the creature made off towards it at once.

            “Watch out for the wandering Lost Cloud. It’s been seen in these parts,” the little creature called back to them as it ushered off.

            “What do you suppose that means?” Asami said.

            “Don’t know,” Korra said. “That one was full of worries about clouds.”

 

            After breakfast, they made their way along the river. Tall, thin trees dotted the riverbanks. They grew thicker and came in clusters. Asami saw a heron-pelican standing sternly in the water on one leg. She joked that it reminded her of Miss Aster, one of her boarding school teachers, and how she would stare at the room from behind her desk during tests. Korra did not know that Asami had been to boarding school and asked her questions. She explained that she had been sent there for nine months out of the year after her mother died until she turned eighteen and left with full, decorated certificates.

Asami got to telling Korra stories about her years of boarding school, mostly the light ones. They laughed their way through most of the morning. When the river went underground, they decided to follow the slope of the ground up and out of the gentle valley. Korra filled their larger water jugs before they went away from the water. They made their way through a small forest of trees.

Asami got Korra really laughing over a story about hiding squares of sweet lemon ice pastries in a pair of tall boots that she designed to run as a freezer. She made a killing by selling them to the other students and never got caught, because no one imagined she could pull off such a feat of engineering.

Asami’s hand touched a tree trunk to steady her steps, and she felt something cold touch her skin that felt strangely akin to a sudden touch from someone uninvited. As she tried to withdraw her hand, she saw a pure white substance slip from around the tree and around her wrist. The white slipped up her arm. She heard herself gasp, knowing the spirit was alive.

            When Asami stopped talking suddenly, Korra turned around. She saw what looked like a white scarf move across Asami’s neck. Asami stood speechless and clearly disoriented. Korra ran back to her. The white spirit was wrapping itself around Asami’s neck. Rather than being choked, Asami gasped in a breath of air. Her face contorted into one of profound shock and pain, and her eyes seemed strangely distant. She fell to her knees and began weeping in earnest.

            “No! No! She can’t be dead! This is a mistake! Where is my father? He will tell you this is a mistake! Go away from me!” Asami said.

            Korra had no idea what was happening, but she grabbed at the spirit to get it away from Asami by instinct. Her hands passed right through it. She felt it touching her skin with great intention, as if considering her. She held still for a brief instant, hoping it would leave Asami and come after her. Then it sprang against Korra with a suddenly shift, clambered up her arms, and grasped her around the chest. She struggled against it in confusion for a moment. Then she felt its effects rising up inside of her.

            Korra gave a cry of deep pain and fell hard to the ground on her side. She was overcome by the feeling of her legs hitting hard stone after she had fallen an incredible distance. Both of them were fractured and broken at the impact. The poison raging through her body began to seep into her bones, and she felt herself nearly faint. A single moment of stillness came over her and, with it, she felt a searing awareness wash over her that her father was dead. One of her ribs had broken and pierced her lung, and the poison seeped in and made her lungs grow heavy. Her body was being lifted against her will. The breath was being stolen from her mouth and nose.

            Suddenly, a burst of fire came out of her lungs. Korra found herself in the Avatar state. A furious wind was about her, dousing the flames, and breaking branches from the surrounding trees. The white spirit was off her and gathered into a prison made of wind. She no longer felt trapped in her moment of deepest pain during her fight with Zaheer. As her mind came back to her more fully, she found herself filled with rage. The spirit writhed as she compressed it and considered crushing it.

            “Korra! Here!” Asami said.

            Korra turned to see that Asami had emptied one of their water flagons and held it out. As she watched the spirit writhe in pain, she felt herself calming from her rage. She gathered it carefully and forced it into the bottle. Asami corked the top and tied it securely in place. They both stood and watched the jug for a moment to make sure that it would hold. Then they were looking at one another in silence.

            Korra’s whole body hurt as if it still held the memory the spirit evoked. She was surprised to find herself even able to stand. Asami burst into weeping again and held her face in her hands. She sank down onto the leaves. Korra lowered herself to the ground carefully, as if afraid the slightest impact might send a jolt of pain through her body, like sharp echoes of what she had suffered when Zaheer nearly killed her. Her instinct was to lie down and lay still, but she stayed sitting and took one, deep breath. She and Asami were facing one another on the ground, and Korra reached to get Asami to bring her hands away from her face. Her thighs pressed to Asami’s back, and they clung to one another hard as if to bring one another back.

There was something deeply staying in their embrace. The satisfied longing she felt to be close and the feel of Asami’s hands pressed against her back drew her back to the present. The relief was uncanny. Korra felt Asami sigh, and her body grew heavier. Her back was still against Korra’s thighs, and Korra felt almost curled around Asami. Their experiences of suffering began to fade away. Korra found herself wondering what past experience had come over Asami, but she remembered how the pain of losing her father broke through even the most tremendous physical suffering in her own memory. The spirit had the power to call out the worst moment in a person’s life, she imagined. She already thought she knew what Asami had experienced. She leaned back to see Asami’s face.

            “Was it your mom?” Korra said.

            Asami nodded gravely. Her composure was coming back quickly. She wiped at her eyes, with the knuckle of her index finger, and her glove absorbed the tears.

            “I haven’t felt anything like that in so many years,” Asami said.

            Korra held onto Asami a little harder. She got a new insight as to how Asami gained so much inner strength. Her own heart felt open and deeply aware of her friend. Korra used to value only strength, and her suffering seemed to her a loss and nothing else. She was learning to respect what she had gained. Her suffering had enabled her to become more deeply humane. Asami had always carried that deep empathy and profound recognition of other people’s humanity, Korra realized. She held an intuitive sense of it but did not recognize what it was entirely, a strength gained from healing from such a devastating pain.

Korra realized with a strange flash of insight that Asami had loved Mako without any hesitation; he was a fire bender like the man who murdered her mother. Still Asami saw him only for who he was and took him entirely for himself. A fire bender murdered his parents, as well. They were bonded by their loss. Korra found herself wondering what distinguished Asami from someone like her father. How did some people learn kindness from pain while others learned hate? She touched Asami’s face to lift her chin a little with a sort of reverence and wished that she could bring Asami’s eyes into focus and get her to shed her deep frown. Asami did focus her eyes on Korra’s face, and her expression lightened if only a little.

“What was that spirit?” Asami asked Korra.

            “I don’t know,” Korra said.

            After another moment on the ground, they shakily gathered themselves and went on walking. Korra put her arm around Asami, and they settled into a graceful, matched stride. They came up out of the valley into brighter sun. The dread of the forest seemed to lift. Asami breathed deeply. Korra turned to see her expression. She was still suffering from the loss of another parent, Korra could see. Her only parent, Korra realized with gravity. And she had lost both in such traumatic ways.

            They decided to sit and make some tea and food. As they settled in, Korra found herself reaching to touch Asami a few times. She smiled softly at Korra whenever she did.

            “Thanks for rescuing me from that thing,” Asami said.

            “I’m sorry it got to you at all,” Korra said.

“It reminds me of those stories about the Fog of Lost Souls, where people are forced to relive their darkest memories and experience their worst fears,” Asami said.

            “That’s it!” Korra said. She sprang to her feet a bit unsteadily. She picked up the water flask and stood holding it in both hands. “Asami, this is the Fog of Lost Souls!”

            Asami stood herself and stared at the flask. Korra seemed delighted by her realization. Asami was uncertain still.

            “Are you sure it’s not another spirit of the same kind?” Asami asked.

            Korra thought for a moment. There was a smaller version of one of the red rocks from their valley the day before nearby. Everything was alive in the spirit world, not just the organisms. Korra put her hand to the rock’s surface and focused. Her mind followed a pathway through the stones. She saw the deep crater where the Fog of Lost Souls once lingered. The air was clear, and it was empty. She opened her eyes and shook her head.

            “I’m sure this is it,” Korra said. “I just have no idea how it came to be here.”

            “What are we going to do with it?” Asami said.

            “I don’t know,” Korra said.

            She clearly had not thought of this yet. And she seemed quite startled by the idea. She held the jug in her hands almost gingerly. She stared at Asami for a moment.

            “Not drink it,” Korra said.

            The joke was a simple one. But the severity of the situation before made Korra’s tone come out completely flat. And they were both still vulnerable from their encounters with the spirit before. The two of the both burst into laughter so hard they had to hold onto one another and eventually sit down.


	3. The Water of Dreams

            “Maybe I could just crush it and freeze it or something,” Korra said.

            They were sitting near their campfire, and the jug containing the Fog of Lost Souls sat near the flames, and the light danced against the curved sides of the container making it seem obvious that its contents were alive. They were both anxious to keep their eyes on the jug. The memory of its affects on the two of them a few days before still lingered in both their minds.

            “It would thaw out eventually,” Asami said.

            “Maybe it would kill it,” Korra suggested. “I could try a bunch of stuff all in a row.”

            “I just don’t think that’s a good idea,” Asami said.

            She had listened to Korra’s ideas about how to contain or destroy the Fog of Lost Souls over the past few days. All of their talk had been drawing out memories from some years ago when she had read countless books on the Spirit World. The ideas felt were like whiffs of smoke on the air, and she knew they were near even if she could not hunt them down.

            “Something’s weighing on you,” Korra said.

            “I used to know something about this,” Asami said.

            “What?”

            “The Fog.”

            “About the Valley? It’s affects? Stories of people who went there?”

            “No, about the Fog itself, I think.”

            “I guess if I had paid more attention in all those lessons on the Spirit Realm I’d know that stuff, too.”

            After a while, Asami got an idea.

            “Why do you think it left the Valley?”

            “A lot changed with the new portal opening up. Maybe something drove it out.”

            “That’s it! Korra!” Asami said. “I remember! The Fog of Lost Souls has a history – a story of its own. It was conjured from the Water of Dreams and trapped in the Valley! It would ensnare any others who came near and keep them there, since it could not escape itself.”

            Korra listened closely and felt baffled for a minute. She picked up the jug and sat down with it. She let herself focus on the spirit trapped within. Asami was right, and she could feel the Fog’s despair at being held prisoner. She let herself drop down into a more receptive state. Asami caught the flicker of light that illuminated Korra’s chest as the purest spirit inside of her reached into its timeless memory and drew out a vision of the Water of Dreams. The Fog was longing as ever to return home. But it could no longer remember the way. Even liberated from its prison, it was still trapped in its worst fear.

            For a nearly three days now, Korra had been trying to decipher a way to imprison or else destroy the spirit held in her lap. She felt ashamed now. And yet the memory it evoked of her bones shattering, the poison seeping into her core, and her mind nearly winking out in pain surrounding the sharp knowledge that her father was dead had made her desperate to escape. She would have given anything to take the memory away, and now she associated the Fog with that brutal memory. The drive to escape a pain like that made one utterly single-minded. She put the jug aside after a time and came to sit near Asami.

            “You’ve been right this whole time,” Korra said.

            “What do you mean?”

            “I’ve been wanting to destroy the Fog or lock it up someplace, and you were quiet. I knew you didn’t agree.”

            “I was trying to remember what I had learned.”

            “You knew I was off base, even if you didn’t know why yet.”

            Asami reached out and put her hand over Korra’s. Korra turned her hand to hold Asami’s hand. Asami felt how Korra’s touch always seemed warm, as if fire wanted to spring out of her at an instant. Mako always felt the same way. The idea came into her mind of Korra and Mako touching, and this made Asami grow abashed. She imagined she might be blushing in the dim light. She noticed the muscle in Korra’s jaw flickering.

            “I guess I still can’t accept my past,” Korra said to her. “The Fog made me remember, and I wanted it gone. It only brought out something that was a part of me already. And I hated it for that.”

            “I think I understand,” Asami said gently. “Maybe it’s actually harder for you, because your spirit is so strong. It must take a long time for you to give in and finally just accept something you can’t change. I don’t think you’d be as good of a fighter or a defender of the rest of us if you didn’t have such a strong will. But that same trait might make this part of healing hard on you.”

            “I’m not much good at healing,” Korra said.

            “Don’t say that. You came back from what would have killed anyone else. You know it’s true.”

            “I came back changed, though.”

            “I think that’s the part you need to accept.”

            Korra was quiet and heavy for a long moment. She laughed softly and worked Asami’s hand in her own. Their eyes met in the dim light.

            “Here I am talking about being changed, when you’ve gone through a hundred times more change yourself.”

            They were quiet together for a moment. Asami seemed lost in thoughts, as if drawing up that memory of the Spirit World oriented her in the past. She wished she could see Asami’s memories and know them herself.

            “I used to dream about my mother every night. One of my teachers, a woman named Kuli, she taught me to meditate. She said my spirit was struggling to let go of the past, so it would not be able to fully take hold of the future. I learned to take each thread of feeling that was evoked when I thought of my mother’s death and hold onto it, just that one thread, until finally I accepted it. It took years to go through them all. I did the same thing when I learned who my father really was, and it took a long time, as well.”

            “That’s incredible.”

            “Patience always astonishes you,” Asami said with a smile at Korra.

            Korra laughed at herself, and Asami’s smile became a full grin when she did.

            “I had to accept what I couldn’t change. And it was probably easier for me to figure out how much of my life that would be. How will we find the Water of Dreams?”

            Korra went and got the jug again. She sat with it in silence and deep concentration. She went to the rocks and focused on the interconnections through the Spirit World. She opened her eyes finally.

            “I can use the rocks again and find our path,” Korra said.

           

            They traveled for many days after that deeper into the Spirit Realm. They entered a land that seemed rocky and dry, and Korra doubted aloud whether they would come to the Water of Dreams. She thought she might be leading them the wrong way somehow. Then the earth before them opened up as if split to the core. They found their way down into a series of caves and followed narrow, jagged paths into the subterranean world. Even Asami felt oddly at peace and oriented in the darkness there for it was not like darkness on the surface of the world.

            They had descended into the World of Dreams. The sound of water came from afar off. Korra could feel the Fog’s longing, still painful but turning sweet with the promise of returning to where it belonged. A great river ran over among stones in a path cut down into the rock by watering flowing over an incredible long spell of time. Lights shone on the water’s surface, and they found the night sky reflected there. The cavern above did not appear in the reflection. Instead, they saw the stars shining brilliantly in the night sky accompanied by no moon. Perhaps this was the sky in their own world on the night of a new moon. Or perhaps this was something else entirely.

            Korra knelt down at the edge of the water. She held the jug in her hands. Asami came to crouch low beside her. She could tell that Korra was afraid to open it. She could sense her heart was racing. So she placed a hand on Korra’s shoulder.

            “Are we releasing more nightmares into the world?” Korra said.

            Asami took the bottle and broke away the seal they had formed on the bottle. She handed it to Korra again. The two of them lowered it to the surface the water and opened it fully. Asami could feel Korra’s hands shaking. The brilliant white of the Fog poured out over the water and spread to cover its surface for a great distance. Then it sank, diffused into the waters. The stars seemed to shine out even more brilliantly when it passed. An insight came over Asami. She remembered clearly now what she had read those years ago, and she knew in a flash that what they had just done was right. She put her hand into the water, and she saw Korra’s body stiffen with alarm. She was ready to drag Asami away from the water, but Asami felt the touch of the spirit come over her gently now. She found it familiar, a sense of healing she had known before.

            “I think we’ve only known this spirit in isolation and despair,” Asami said. “What it’s meant to do, it can do aright now. We try to push away out terrors, but they’re inside us already. So we can only drive them deeper into our own minds where they cannot be seen fully. Once they’re buried in the unconscious mind, we feel safer. But they have to be brought out again, gently, slowly. Otherwise, they will always be there, keeping some part of us frozen and lost. The spirits tend to them in our dreams. Before it became the Fog of Lost Souls, this spirit was a healing force. It heals and protects, as it both hides and reveals what we cannot know and yet must know. I can feel it.”

            Korra stood up. Asami saw her jaw flickering and her eyes burning. Korra pulled off all of her own clothes, and, for some reason, Asami did not feel that she needed to look away. Korra waded out into the water slowly. And Asami stood and undressed herself. She followed her into the dark water.

            Asami’s eyes were closed, and a mere moment might have passed since she stepped into the waters or a hundred years of sleep might have passed just as easily. She recognized only one thing when she first opened her eyes. She recognized Korra. She knew the lines of her as she pushed her hair from her face, and she knew the feel of her nearby, a life force as resonant as anything she had ever known before. Asami recognized Korra even before she remembered her name as a word that might be spoken. The memory of the waters around them and her own life came over her after this until she was herself again.

            Only after she had gathered herself entirely did she feel herself grow characteristically shy of the waking reality of the two of them naked together in the water. She wanted to reach out her hand and touch Korra. She had the most vivid sense of what it might feel like to run her hand over her skin. But here in the water she felt surrounded by a particular wisdom. Some truths needed to emerge slowly, especially those that would prove defining. And Asami’s heart felt light with the promise of a change that might once again redefine her, one where she might gain a new life that she desired rather than experience the loss of one. She smiled knowing that as surely as a life could be unmade, as her own had so many times, it seemed, a new life could form, as well.


	4. Medicine Woman

            They passed through a week without incident. Near the end of this, they met a beautiful shepherdess leading a herd of horse-hares. The shepherdess was a spirit that had the appearance both of a woman and a cherry tree at once. She stepped softly the grass, and petals from bright blossoms that grew from branches of her body rained down around her slowly. The horse-hares would eat the fallen petals along with the grass. She recognized the Avatar, and they shared an evening with her. Asami had never spent an evening in near silence with a stranger before, but the shepherdess had a peace about her that felt it ought not to be disturbed. She waved a farewell to them from the horizon line the following morning.

            Their day began simply enough, but then Asami caught site of a strange storm blowing their way. There was a patch of furious snow coming towards them, but there were no clouds over it. They thought it was heading off west, but it veered suddenly their way. As it swept down upon them, they realized that it was a swarm of living spirits.

            Korra created a violent swirl of air, but the spirits rode on the winds like snowflakes and maneuvered themselves to stay close. Korra could feel them feeding on the threads of her energy that were woven into the air currents. She let out a blast of fire, and the spirits went into a frenzy, darting into the flames to snatch at the tiniest bits of energy woven through them. Korra saw Asami fall to one knee, and for a poised instant, she could think of nothing else. An idea struck her, perhaps out of desperation.

            Light radiated from Korra’s body as air, wind, water, and stones all swirled about her. She bolted with the trail of elements and energy trailing out behind her like the tail end of a comet. In the avatar state, Korra could feel the desperate hunger of the spirits gathering into a cloud at her back, leaving Asami behind. She turned abruptly and gathered them into a fierce dome of air, the currents strong enough they could not escape this time. She could feel that the spirits were longing for a life force buried deep within the earth, far from their reach. She plowed her foot into the earth and opened up a chasm and drove the ball as deep as she could.

            Korra stepped swiftly to the edge of the open rift about to close the opening to keep the spirits within. But she could feel them moving deeper into the earth and being carried away on an underground stream. She closed the rift gently and felt herself return from the Avatar state. And she broke out into a run again.

            Droplets of blood were visible on Asami’s skin, and she was gasping. As Korra knelt, she saw that Asami clutched both hands at a line of blood that was seeping through her shirt. Korra drew her hands away and opened up Asami’s shirt. She saw little cuts on her own hands and arms for the first time as she did. A gash had opened across the middle of Asami’s chest as if she had been cut by a blade that somehow slipped underneath her clothing. Korra opened a jug and brought a ball of water to Asami’s chest and began to seal the wound even as she tried to understand what had happened.

            Korra felt Asami beginning to lose consciousness, but the flow of blood was already stopped. She kept feeding the ball of energy in her hands until the line across Asami’s chest was closed fully and would not open again. The stillness when she stopped made Korra stop breathing. She watched Asami’s chest rise and fall gently and her eyelashes flutter, and the sight began to calm her frantic nerves, which she only began to feel now as the tension in her body eased.

            She leaned closer to bring her ear down to Asami’s lips. She felt the air growing softer, gradually. Something was still wrong. Korra closed her eyes and felt for internal damage. But there was none. Asami’s body was whole, and yet Korra realized that her life energy was still draining slowly, almost as if she was still bleeding to death in some unseen way. Her eyelids fluttered open once and closed again. Wisps of air barely passed through her lips.

            Korra took a desperate, deep breath and gathered some of her own life energy together. She breathed this over Asami’s lips and heard her gasp to draw it in as if on instinct. She did this a few more times and leaned back. Even this new energy kept flowing away from Asami. Insights flashed through Korra’s mind. The spirits were obviously capable of opening up cuts in the body. They must have gathered on Asami’s chest trying to get at her heart or her breath. But they were strange wounds, she realized, as she looked at her own hands. They were not cuts. They were openings as if threads of her body had been sorted and pulled apart. The flurry of spirits were stealing life energy, and they must have opened up a wound in Asami’s spirit. Even now that they were gone, her life force was draining out. And Korra had no idea how to heal such a wound as this.

           In her desperation, Korra went inward. She pleaded with Raava to bring her some insight as to what she should do. A flash of memory from long ago arose in her mind. There were hills nearby and over them a scattering of woods. She could find a healer there. She stood and lifted Asami in her arms.

            Over the hours, Korra found herself torn between a delicate balance of giving Asami her life energy and keeping her body moving forward. She knew that she was going in the right direction, but she was losing ground internally. The night came on, and by morning, Korra found herself staggering and nearly delirious. Her mind was fixed on two points, the pull of the healer’s hut she knew was ahead of her and the fragile movement of air through Asami’s lips.

            Finally, Korra fell. She forced herself to stand and made good ground before she fell once more. Her legs would not let her stand again when she tried. She rested her head on Asami’s chest and focused only on gathering her strength.

            A small voice was speaking in her ear, and Korra wondered if it were a dream. She turned and found a little twig spirit with its long thin legs blending into the blades of grass. It was speaking to her.

            “Are you hurt?” it said.

            “My friend is dying,” Korra managed.

            “The shepherdess’s hut is nearby,” it said.

            “The shepherdess?’

            “There’s a great healer who lives there.”

            Korra managed to rise and bring Asami with her. She groaned loudly with the effort. The little twig spirit rushed forward to try to stop her.

            “I have to keep going,” Korra said.

            The spirit darted off at a speed that made it seem like only a blur. Korra marched onward, but she could feel her body beginning to fail again already. There was a scattering of trees nearby. They were close. But they were not likely to make it. An odd company of spirits and animals came rushing from the trees. Korra saw the little twig spirit among them.

            Their voices cluttered together, but they convinced Korra to let them carry Asami. They were low to the ground, and yet they were incredibly strong. All together, they rushed over the grass and fallen leaves with Asami. Korra followed, struggling to carry even her own weight at this point.

            They passed through a denser clutter of trees. Korra fell a handful of times, and a few flying spirits grasped her shoulders, pack, and collar. They pulled and helped lift her up and carry her onwards. The spirits began to call out just as they came onto a worn path and a hut made of red bamboo appeared ahead of them. Their voices brought someone to the door, and she rushed out to meet them on the pathway.

            Korra remembered her either from a past life long ago or perhaps even through Raava’s spirit. She wore dark red robes and stood on two legs, but she had the face of a fox with silver fur. Three tails peaked out from under the back of her robes. She leaned down to touch Asami’s face, then she told the spirits to carry her inside. They quickly made their way through the open door. The healer sensed Korra then, even before she saw her. She turned and beckoned Korra with her hand.

            Korra followed her inside. She sank to the floor and reached out to touch hands and thank the many spirits and little creatures who had brought them to this place. When they had gone, the room seemed terribly quiet. Every part of her ached terribly. She watched the woman study Asami, as if she were a book the healer could read. Korra felt both a relief and deep fear at once.

            “Can you help her?” Korra said.

            “I can. The place where her body and spirit meet has been severed. She’s full of your life essence as well as her own, and both are leaking out of her.”

            “I breathed some of my own spirit into her.”

            “That was brave and dire choice, Avatar. What is your name in this life?”

            “Korra. I know you, but I cannot remember yours.”

            “Vulpa,” she said in a voice that seemed like the sound of a fox’s tail brushing over a field of dry grass. The healer gathered a chair and placed it beside the bed where Asami lay and beckoned Korra again. “Come and keep watch over your friend while I prepare medicine for her.”

            She worked to prepare two small pots for medicinal teas at the table behind Korra. The walls were lined with bottles and wooden boxes. Crates were stacked on top of one another in places. The rafters were crowded with bundles of dried flowers and leaves, each wrapped in a delicate fabric to catch what might have fallen. And still the floors and mantel were littered with leaves and loose petals. Her apothecary seemed to contain the essences of the entire Spirit World carefully gathered into one place.

            “What did this?” she asked Korra as she worked.

            “I don’t know. They came on us all at once like a plague of moths. They were white and moved like snowflakes in a storm.”

            “Did they give you those cuts on your face and hands?”

            “Yes, they did.”

            “That’s strange. They have no right names, but they’re known as Spirit Siphons. They are supposed to live deep in the ground entwined with the roots of vines and trees that drive deep into the soil. There they pick apart the threads of the spirit world and the material world, allowing the two to merge, blend, and exchange what they both need. They must have been driven out somehow. They would never leave their right home. And for them to come upon the two of you this way, they must have been starving.”

            “I drove them back into the earth, but there were no trees or roots to hold them. They were swept away by a stream.”

            “That’s good, then. Underground streams tend to lead to roots eventually. Perhaps they would sense this and allowed themselves to be carried away.”

            “I think so. In my world, someone cut down vines with roots that led into the Spirit World. Perhaps they were uprooted then.”

            “Starved out. That seems likely.”

            As they spoke, Korra watched Vulpa place a pair of small spectacles at the end of her nose and carefully study the exact contents of many bottles and boxes. She used a small hook on a long stick to bring down a few bundles from the rafters. She ground these contents with two mortals and pestles, then she placed them in the teapots and poured steaming water over them. They waited for the leaves to steep, and Vulpa poured two cups. The steam that rose from them gave off a scent that made every part of Korra’s being feel alive with longing. Vulpa placed one cup near Korra, and they both blew at the surface of the teas. The tea cooled with what felt an agonizing slowness. Korra sipped from her own and nearly shook herself with the energy of it as it moved through her being.

            “Do you think you have the strength to awaken your friend?” Vulpa asked.

            Instead of answering, Korra moved to the side of the bed at once. She leaned close and breathed more of her own life energy into Asami. She waited each time to see if she would awaken, and after a third time, Asami’s eyelashes fluttered. Korra stood back and nearly toppled over. Vulpa helped her into the chair, then she went and took Asami by the shoulders. Korra watched Vulpa give Asami the tea. Asami seemed barely conscious, but she must have known that Vulpa meant to help her. She complied readily and drank the cup down. Before she could gather her thoughts or feelings, Korra sank down in her chair and lost consciousness herself.  

            When Korra awoke, the room was dim, lit only by small fire burning in the fireplace. She found herself leaning into her own arms on the table. Asami slept nearby in the bed, and Vulpa was asleep on a stack of blankets near her fireplace. She drank the cold, strong tea that Vulpa had made her. The feel of it brought an incredible relief over her. She came to Asami’s side. She was deeply asleep, but Korra could tell that she was gaining strength.

            With a felt sense of gratitude so strong it felt almost like pain, Korra stretched out beside Asami on the bed. Her body pulsed with the ache of profound exhaustion and the swirling, heated feel of the medicine doing its work. She breathed deeply, and the quiet of the room gave her a sense of incredible peace. She placed her hand on Asami’s arm, as if to assure herself that no one could take her away, and fell asleep again.

 

            Asami awoke slowly. Her mind and body ached and sleep felt like heavy waters still dragging her down. The room was strange, and she could not remember where they were. With effort, she turned her head to see Korra beside her. There were cuts on her face and neck. Asami tried to remember what had happened.

            A feeling of astonishment came over her as she realized that she could feel Korra’s spirit inside of her. She brought a hand to her own chest, and there could be no doubt that somehow Korra was there, no just beside her, but also within. Her mind began to gather the threads of memory together, and she saw an image of the swarm of spirits coming down on her, remembered how they gathered at her chest, and how she knew they were opening her up. Whatever had happened since then was lost to her. Korra have saved her somehow.

            A long time passed in silence. Asami carefully turned in the bed to face Korra somewhat. When she could, she lifted her arm and placed her hand upon Korra’s face.

            Korra opened her eyes. Her first awareness was that her body felt like stones, and it would be incredibly difficult to fight. The quiet of the room came over her then and calmed her. Waking felt like a pain tearing at her mind, but then she saw Asami was awake and remembered where they were. Her eyes opened fully. She saw Asami give her the faintest smile.

            Korra’s arm had grown light and moved without any force of her will. She placed her hand over Asami’s. Her heart seemed to want to tremble in her chest now with the fear of losing Asami. She had felt brave before and determined. Now, in the peace of the room, she finally felt scared.

            Asami turned onto her side carefully and with considerable effort. She curved her back to draw nearer to Korra. With their arms around one another, they both began to settle slowly back down into sleep. Asami’s attention was divided between the feel of Korra next to her in the bed, and the feel of her spirit still diffused through her own body. She felt perhaps less lonely in this moment than she ever had in her life. The sweetness of the feeling created a sense of stark pain as her past stood out now in contrast. Even as exhausted as she was, some part of her mind seemed to become fully awake and to take full notice of her longing to stay this near to Korra. What’s more, the feel of Korra’s body beside her in the bed made her own body feel more resonate, more receptive. She had not been fully aware of it before. She felt in love with Korra.

            Asami expected her epiphany to stand out in contrast to the peace of the room. But it didn’t. Instead, they seemed to match. She felt herself smile softly at the next thought that floated up in her mind. If she could have chosen anyone to be in love with, she would have chosen Korra. She would have to figure out what it all meant later, when she was more herself. Perhaps this was even a side effect of whatever magic had allowed Korra’s spirit to enter her body. She doubted it, however. The truth had a way of surfacing and showing that it had developed slowly, gained mass before rising up into full awareness.

            Korra’s mind felt empty of coherent thoughts. All her attention was on her own body. She had not been this worn down since she had recovered from the Red Lotus’s poison. The heaviness in her limbs gave her the urge to fight against her exhaustion. Her muscles wanted to flex, and she wanted to climb out of the bed. She had the impulse to ready herself for a fight.

            When Asami moved in close to her and they embraced, her body seemed to grow quiet. She remembered being immersed in Katara’s healing waters – the one place where she found peace during those many, early months of her healing. She had suffered perhaps the most at night, in bed. And she wished now that Asami had been there to hold onto her this way. With that strange mix of desire and fulfillment filling her body, Korra fell back to sleep.


	5. Unique Medicines

            In the morning, Korra felt much stronger. She worried that Asami might have grown more ill, because she slept so deeply. But Vulpa seemed relieved herself when she looked at Asami. She said that Asami was gathering strength, weaving her spirit back together again. She placed her ear to her chest as if to listen to her breath and her heartbeat or perhaps something beyond, some sound of the spirit that her ears could detect. She began to gather the ingredients to make her another tea. Vulpa grew quiet as she studied many bottles and boxes, considering what mix to make. Korra did not want to distract her.

            “This medicine would be easier to make if I knew your friend better,” Vulpa said. “Healing follows many patterns, but it’s also unique.”

            “What do you need to know about her?” Korra said.

            Vulpa appeared to make a soft, silent chuckle that made her shoulders shake a little bit. She glanced at Korra over her glasses. She opened a jar and took a long, searching sniff and thought for a minute.  

            “That’s not what I mean. The real knowing comes from someplace beyond words, doesn’t it?” Vulpa said.

            “Yes,” Korra answered even as she looked over at Asami.

            She didn’t even have to focus her eyes on her to see Asami anymore. How she looked in a given moment wasn’t written on the surface for Korra. There was something more, something deeper. She read how Asami _was_ simply by looking at her. She stood up and looked at the bottles on the wall. She wished that she could be helpful. She found Vulpa watching her expectantly when she turned back to her.

            “Well, what do you think she needs?” Vulpa asked.

            “Me?” Korra said and received only a nod. “I’ve never been much of a healer. Physical wounds, sure. The physical always came naturally to me. But spiritual wounds, I don’t know. I’ve only lately come to begin to understand the spiritual side of being the Avatar.”

            “In every incarnation, the Avatar is always a great healer. Raava longs to heal what is grand and eternal. The mortal spirit of the Avatar longs to heal what is transient and beloved. They make a beautiful match. Just look around. Use your intuition. Read the bottles the way you read your friend. Perhaps you will discover something I cannot.”

            As Vulpa worked at the table, Korra moved about the room. For Asami’s sake, she would at least try to make sense of Vulpa’s directions. She opened many bottles and considered their contents. Neither sight nor smell of any of them proved particularly catching. She rubbed at the back of her sore neck, and she bent low to consider many more vials and bundles on low shelves and sorted in boxes with shelves. She went through some of these.

            In a crate, she found a red bottle that appeared to have nothing inside, but she tipped it into her palm and a single twig came out. The wood gave off a scent like cinnamon, ginger, and hot peppers all blended together. It appeared a dry, dull brown on the outside, but at the ends, a beautiful pattern of red and orange could be seen inside.

            An energy moved through Korra as she held it that made the hair on her arms want to stand up. She rose eagerly and came to Vulpa’s side.

            “I think this would help Asami,” Korra said.

            “Firewood,” Vulpa said.

            Korra could hear the surprise in Vulpa’s voice and her ears flicked with curiosity. She had been grinding her mixture together and stopped. She stared over at Asami for a long, silent moment.

            “I believe you’re right,” Vulpa said, still with an edge of surprise in her voice.

            She took the tiny twig from Korra and ground it into the tea she was making. Korra felt a kind of delight and sat on the floor near the low fire. Her heart was nearly dancing with pride, as if she had just mastered some new element.

            A knock came at the door, and Korra found several of the spirits that had helped them the day before outside. She knelt down to speak to all of them. She led them inside to see Asami doing better. They were delighted that Asami was all right, and they embraced Korra before they left to tell the rest of their worried friends.

            A tea was brewing on the table, the steam lifting into the air. Korra breathed in the incredible scent and wondered if it might even be enough to bring Asami awake. She sat down at the table across from Vulpa who was sitting quietly.

            “It smells delicious,” Korra said.

            “A taste as beautiful as the sight of the Fire Forest itself,” Vulpa said.

            “Where is the Fire Forest?”

            “Some miles from here, if you head in the direction of the three volcanoes, the Three Sisters, they’re called. A great gathering of clouds formed over the forest many years ago now, and it blotted out the sunlight that fed the Forest’s beauty. The entire Forest has been dwindling since then.”

            Korra suddenly remembered the little visitor who sat near the fire. He was incredible beautiful, ignited within by the flames. He had gone off to find the new portal. Korra had to wonder how many more there were like him, exiles from the Fire Forest trying to find a place of abundant heat somewhere in their world.

            “Why is the wood from there healing?” Korra asked her, wondering if she would even be able to explain in a way that Korra could understand.

            “Wood from young, brightly burning trees like this one, harvested from the depths of the Fire Forest, awakens desire. Sometimes, a deep longing gives a person a great gift of energy, brings them more into themselves,” Vulpa said.

            Korra found herself astonished now. Her own body seemed to catch some of the heat implied and intended for Asami held in the cup before her on the table. She imagined that her cheeks had probably reddened. Vulpa did not seem to take any particular notice of this.

            “Oh,” Korra said at last. “And that’s what Asami needed?”

            “I could not have guessed, but I suppose her essence has been centering on the formation of her own desire, her life force coalescing around that particular dance of becoming. Is she in love with someone?”

            Korra most certainly blushed now. She practically sank into her seat, even though she felt oddly ecstatic. Vulpa gave her a once over and one ear swiveled away from Asami towards Korra, but her expression gave away nothing. She seemed very ancient and hard to unbalance – unlike Korra.

            “Uh, I don’t know,” Korra said.

            Vulpa turned away from her, likely to lend her some privacy. Korra went outside to carry in water and chop some wood. Her body felt better and the movements relieved some of the ache still in her body from the day before.

            Once the tea had steeped and cooled, Vulpa had woken Asami. Korra found Asami sitting up and studying Vulpa. She took another cup of the tea with a tender thank you and touched the back of Vulpa’s hand. The two of them seemed to like one another already.

            Whatever magic the cup held, Asami seemed rapidly transformed. Within a short time, she got out of bed. They began to make a meal together, and the endeavor turned into a little impromptu feast. Vulpa stepped out to invite the gathering of small spirits and animals from nearby to come and join them later. Asami seemed reticent and joyful. She hip-checked Korra once when Korra was carrying a plate of sesame seeds and not paying any attention. Korra only kept them from scattering to the floor with a quick and gentle air-bending maneuver.

            “Hey, Korra?” Asami said.

            “What?” Korra said still a bit breathless.

            “Thanks for saving my life.”

            Korra gripped the shallow bowl of seeds to her chest. She gave an impromptu grin. Asami somehow seemed happier and more peaceful than Korra had ever seen her before. Vulpa returned, and they finished their preparations. She noticed that Vulpa sat the red bottle that had held the wood from the Fire Forest on her mantle along with other empty bottles.

            They feasted that night, and then Korra built them a fire outside. They danced and celebrated. Vulpa played a large drum from inside her hut that she pounded with her three tails, and some of the spirits had flutes they played that all together made a delicate and ethereal sound. They sang in ancient languages that Korra had never heard before, yet the words seemed strangely familiar to her. At times, she would catch flashes of images of the stories the songs told: A young girl riding the back of a great, golden dragon. Three sons who all looked exactly alike climbing a tree into the sky. A husband and wife handing their young child over to the temple at Goram. Late into the night they celebrated, then they all lay out under the stars.

            In the morning, Korra and Asami made preparations to leave. At the last moment, Korra noticed the empty red bottle again. She had a thought.

            “We used the last of your wood from the Fire Forest,” Korra said. “We should bring you some more.”

            “That would be a true gift,” Vulpa said. “The shepherdess brings me everything I need, as she and her company roam across the Spirit World. But she does not go into the Fire Forest anymore. And wood like that is not to be found there these days, unless it would be found deep in the center of the wood where there’s still heat.”

            “What’s the Fire Forest?” Asami asked.

            “A place where trees live by flames rather than dying by them,” Vulpa said. “But the entire forest is waning, locked away from the sun by some magic I cannot rightly name.”

            “Sounds like a good place for us to go,” Asami offered lightly to see if Korra was game.

            “Let’s go!” Korra said. “What’s a little vacation without a few life or death encounters and a mission to accomplish?”

            Asami took out an elaborate watch with a mechanical calendar in it. She considered its face. She clicked it shut with an air of finality.

            “We’ve only been gone nine days as time passes in the material world,” Asami said. “We told them not to expect us for three weeks, at least. So we can vacation after this is done.”

            “Sounds like a plan!” Korra said.

            Vulpa made up a parcel of tea and food to send with them. They made Vulpa a kind farewell and offered her even more thanks for her help. She watched them depart from her doorframe, and Korra wondered how many times Vulpa had watched the Avatar wander away from her hut in the past. Probably there were too many to name.


	6. Tea With Friends

            They traveled a full thirteen days according to time in the Spirit World, and on the tenth day, an enormous cloud formation appeared on the horizon. The borders of the Fire Forest were grim and dark when they came into sight the following day. The name seemed entirely amiss. Korra found Asami standing and watching the clouds silently on that first night when they came within view of the Forest, after she left camp to find some fresh water and returned.

            “They do move,” Asami said.

            “The clouds?” Korra asked.

            “Yes. They shift away, and in the morning, they’re back over the Forest again.”

            Korra took notice over the next couple of days, and she was certain that Asami was right. When they were only about a day’s journey to the Forest, they lingered. They gathered food in preparation for many unknown days among the trees. Korra was worried about finding clean water to drink, but the clouds appeared to deliver rain almost everyday. They would find out soon if it was fit to drink.

            The night before they intended to enter the forest, they were sitting about their campfire and talking. A sound got their attention, and they both slipped away out of the firelight. Four human men came into their camp and looked about themselves. They called politely enough and said they meant no harm. Korra showed herself first, stepping boldly into the firelight.

            “You looking for something?” she said.

            “We heard that the Avatar had come to free the Fire Forest,” a small, wiry man with a long mustache said.

            “You heard that did you?” Asami said from behind him, causing the men to turn.

            “Yes. We mean no harm. We want to help you,” he said, holing up his hands.

            “Why do you have a seat then and tell us more about that?” Asami said steadily

Korra followed Asami’s lead and sat. The other men chimed in, but mostly the one who had spoken first talked. There used to be villages of humankind in the Fire Forest, they said. Now, everything alive was driven out almost. They lived near the borders of the Forest north of there.

            “If you’re going into the Forest, we want to help you. We know many of the paths and how to navigate them,” he explained.

            “We could use a guide,” Korra said.

            “How far north?” Asami asked mildly.

            “Pardon?” he said.

            “How far north do you live now?”

            “About twelve miles, a half day’s steady march.”

            “Are we likely to see much resistance in the Forest?” Korra asked them.

            “Oh, yes,” he told her. “We’ve fought beasts bred by magic that spew out of the center of the wood – bats, wolves, snakes. We consider our duty to keep them within the Forest. Otherwise, they would spill out into the land beyond. You’ll be fighting for your lives from the moment you enter the Forest.”

            “Why bats, wolves, and snakes?” Asami asked.

            “Pardon?” the man said.

            “Why those three in particular? Is it the magic itself? It’s akin to those animals?”

            “I don’t rightly know,” the man said. “But you’re in for some real fighting.”

            “Well, we’re good at that,” Korra said.

            “Are they animals or spirits?” Asami asked.

            “They’re spirits, but they take the form of animals.”

            “Are they easy to kill, then? Or hard?” Asami asked.

            “They’re cunning, another man said. But a warrior worth his salt… eh… or her salt… can kill many. We’re all seasoned fighters.”

            “Can you lead us to food and water in the Forest?” Korra asked.

            “Water is easy. You’ll find no trouble there. Food is something else.”

            “You all don’t seem to be carrying much with you,” Asami said.

            The men were quiet for a moment. They shuffled and seemed embarrassed. Korra stoked up the fire with a little jet of flame, and they grew distracted at the sight. Asami could already tell they were not benders, but their amazement confirmed this.

            “We haven’t brought much,” the man with the mustache said. “Our village couldn’t spare very much. We brought a little tea to share; it’s the finest in the southern realms of the Spirit World. We meant it as a gift to welcome the Avatar in thanks to you for considering our plight.”

            “That’s all right,” Korra said. “And I’m sure we can rustle something up for you to eat tonight. Tomorrow, we can all gather what’s around. We’ve got a stream not far away, and there are some nuts and apples. If we find a patch of wild rice, it’ll go a long way.”

            “Thank you, Avatar,” the man said, standing and bowing. “You must let us share our tea with you. There’s enough for you and your friend both. Believe me, you’ve never tasted anything so glorious. It was harvested from the Fire Forest some years ago.”

            “All right,” Korra said. “Let me go and see what I can find first.”

            “Maybe they’d like to see what the Avatar is capable of,” Asami said. “It’s going to a dangerous fight for all of us, it seems. Might raise some the spirits among our company if you show your stuff a little bit."

            “You’ll be okay alone?” Korra said, a little thrown.

            “I’m back to myself, and we’re clear of danger still yet,” Asami said.

            “All right, then,” Korra said and sounded only barely convinced. “Be back in a jiff!”

            All four men seemed eager to follow her away from the camp. Asami watched them leave. Then she bent down and added wood to stoke up their fire.

            Korra came back in less than an hour. She was carrying a long stream of water with her. The four men put down their jugs, and Korra filled them. They all murmured further impressed. Korra looked pleased if a little bored. She had been showing off before. They carried in a catch of fish, several types of mushrooms, and armfuls of wild apples.

            They prepared a small feast of wild foods. Asami seemed quiet. She took the cup of tea the men offered her graciously and drank it. Korra wondered if she were feeling worried about the Fire Forest. She had never seen Asami stray from a fight. Perhaps the Spirit World put her on her guard.

            They nestled down to sleep not long afterwards. It seemed only moments had passed since they settled in when Korra felt herself suddenly fully awake. She was lying on her side and could feel Asami sleeping at her back.

            “What if the Avatar wakes?” a man’s voice said.

            Korra had been startled awake by voices speaking nearby. Some instinct told her to fain sleep, even as her mind interpreted the words she had just heard. Footsteps came nearer.

            “That’s the strongest sleeping potion in all the Spirit World. It put Fantiam the Two-Headed Guardian to sleep for twelve years. Believe me – she’s asleep.”

            Someone kicked her boot. Korra quelled an urge to kick a blast of fire back at him. She lay perfectly still instead.         

            “All right. Where are we taking them, then?”

            “Here is good,” Asami’s voice said.

            Korra heard one of them being swept off his feet and hitting the ground. She threw off her blanket and kicked a burst of air out that knocked two others down. Asami stood and fought briefly with the last of them and got him to the ground. She stood over them.

            “Sorry I didn’t explain,” Asami said to Korra.

            “That’s all right,” Korra said.

            “How is this possible?” one of the men said. “That potion was unstoppable!”

            “Not if you don’t drink it,” Asami said turning to Korra. “I switched out its contents for a tea that Vulpa gave us. Guess you didn’t look close enough.”

            Korra got up and stretched her back. One of the four men tried to make a break for it, and she snatched him with a current of air and dragged him back. She watched the others, but they had gotten the point.

            “So,” Asami said. “Why _don’t_ you want us to awaken the Fire Forest? Were you the ones who made the spell that fixed the clouds in place?”

            The men were silent, and Korra could feel that Asami was right about them. Asami crossed her arms and eyed the men with a skeptical stare. Korra could see plainly that she had doubted every word they had spoken. Somehow, she knew to interpret what they said and already guessed the truth hidden behind their offers of assistance. Korra sent pillars of earth up right beside all four of the men to encourage them to talk. The one who had the potion started talking at once.

            “It was the Red Lotus that brought the clouds to cover the Fire Forest. That way, they could enter into it and take what they wanted from there. They grew more powerful harvesting from the Fire Forest that way. They unlocked all sorts of rare abilities and powers from the Firewood over the years.”

            “And what about you three? What did you take?” Asami said.

            “We didn’t take nothing from those woods!” the big one said.

            “He’s telling you the truth. We sold heat and safe passage to the animals leaving the place. That’s all we did, we swear.”

            “You grew rich on the suffering of others, you mean?” Asami said, and she shook her head at their silence. “So why keep us out now?”

            “Speak up,” Korra said and lifted a large rock that was half buried in the earth nearby when they remained silent.

            “We sell the Firewood. That’s all,” one of the men said.

            Asami believed him. She rubbed at her eyes. Korra thought she seemed a bit exhausted with them.

            “What are we going to do with these guys?” Asami asked Korra.

            Korra gave the softest chuckle and dropped the rock. She wielded a little flame in her palm like a ball she was about to throw at someone’s head in a game about to turn rough. She had her other hand resting on her hip.

            “I could untie them and give them a fight that would make sure they don’t follow us. We’d been done in the Forest before they recovered, I can assure you of that.”

            “If we take them with us, we’ll have to keep watch. Maybe we should tie them up and just leave them here,” Asami said. “Let’s talk it over again in the morning. I’m exhausted.”

            That night, they took turns sleeping and keeping watch over the men. In the morning, they fed the men along with themselves, and the men looked grateful and surprised. Out of earshot, Asami explained how she knew they were lying. Mainly, they were too friendly, too eager to help. She knew that game from her own father. And their answers to her questions were being made up on the fly, she could tell. They brought no food with them, and yet they didn't seem particularly impressed with the wild feast Korra pulled together. They had been eating well in the days before. Korra and Asami were both tired from even one night of guarding them, and they didn't fancy feeding them anymore. They talked over what they should do. They could find no good option, and Asami was leaning towards letting Korra fight all four and thinking it might be more fair if she fought them one at a time herself.

            A flicker of movement on the horizon caught Korra’s eye. She stood to watch, and Asami stood behind her wondering if more men were coming to rescue these ones somehow. A fox was making its way down the road.

            “Wait, I know that fox,” Korra said.

            Even as she spoke, a form appeared at the top of a hill on the horizon and waved to her.

            “Iroh!” Korra said. “He’ll know what to do.”

            They waited, and Korra went to embrace Iroh when he came. Asami met him and patted his fox friend’s head. Iroh did not seem surprised about the men, and Korra asked her what they should do with them.

            “They owe a great debt to others that must be repaid, and you cannot be hindered in your own task. So I will place a burden on each of them that will keep them occupied for a long time. Should they ever become free again, they will be very much changed,” Iroh said.

            Iroh opened a bag he carried at his side. He brought out and unfolded a wrap of delicate, silver fabric that shone with its own light. Carefully, he cut four lengths of this, and then he placed them like mantels on the necks of each of the men. As he went along the row, he spoke slowly and carefully to each of them. The mantels would fade into their shoulders, as if sinking into their spirits as he spoke to them.

            “You must gather a bottle of the red sand along the beaches of the Sea of New Beginnings. Do not drink the waters there, or you will lose all your memories and wander endlessly, burdened with a task you cannot ever achieve. Bring the sands to the glassmakers in the far north and find a woman named Ekko. She will transform the sand into an orb of red glass that will capture the light of the early morning sun and allow it to burn through the night until the next day. By this light, you must venture into the Shadow Forest and lead the wolves there out from under their fear of hunters. Bring them back into the Green Woods beyond, and then, you will be free again.

            “You must find your way to the peaks of the White Cliffs. The people who live at the foot of the mountains will help you. Get them to outfit you with their clothes and pack provisions for you on their mountain goat-markors. No water, food, or fuel can be found upon the mountainside. At the top of the peak, you will find a spirit imprisoned in a cage of woven vines. This is the spirit of the gentle serpent Unaku, who once lived wrapped about the Tree of Moro and protected its magic from being stolen. Once Unaku returns, the tree with flower and bear fruit again, and many long awaited changes will come over this land. When the serpent returns, you will be free of your burden. But if you wait there, then you can bear some of the blossoms home to your mother, and she will be healed of the illness that has caused her and your family so much pain over many years.  

            “You must find the Glittering Harbors and find a ship that will carry you across the enchanted waters of the Utmost Seas. This will not be easy. Many dangers will allay your vessel. Take a potion made of peach seed oil, telic blossoms, and cypress wood ash with you. With this mantel, you will be the only one of your crew able to keep your sense of purpose and avoid many diversions that would captivate you until you forgot all else. Sail to where the waters lose their greenish hue and turn white and then keep going until ice riddles the sea. You will find the winged narwhals locked within a circle of ice. Once you find a weak place in the wall of their ice prison, pour the potion onto the ice. Then your axes will be able to cut through. When the winged narwhals reach the open seas, then you will be free.

            “And you must go to the city of Anitel. Find an old man there named Huran. All in the city will know him. Take the scroll he has written locked in a case to keep it safe from rain and damage. From there, you must find the scroll’s rightful keeper. No one knows her name, but many have seen her. She appears sometimes as a horse and others as a tree that flowers in all seasons. Follow the trail of tales, and someday, they will lead you to her. Along your way, the story written upon the scroll will gain you food and shelter. You will be at the mercy of the many, but you will find that they long to help you along your way. Every story has a home, and this one is more important than most. Once you read it, you will see what I mean. When the scroll comes into the hands of its rightful owner, then you will be free.”

            He turned his attention away from the four of them. Asami watched them slowly gather their things and wander away. They walked with a new gravity in their bearing that spoke of the burdens laid upon on them. She found herself wishing them luck, her anger towards them faded away already. Iroh got out a teapot and sat down by the fire.

            “Now,” he said, “A little tea with friends, as promised before. I came to help the two of you on your own quest. You mean to reignite the Fire Forest.”

            The three of them sat and shared a cup of tea. Asami had never tasted anything so bright and full of flavor. The tea made her feel warmed by a deep love for Korra and this new friend, and her hope for their quest grew until it felt almost inviolable.

            “I know that the cloud covering has not put out the fire entirely. If you follow the paths I can tell you through the cold and dying woods, you will find the heart of the place is still living. If there is a way to break the spell and allow the sun to awaken the Firewood once more, I believe you will find it there.”

            Asami gave Iroh the sleeping potion she had stolen from the men, and he placed it into the bag at his side. He embraced both Korra and Asami before he left. They watched him make his away down the path for a while, moving slowly and yet passing quickly, like stead flow of time. When he came to the top of a hill, he turned and waved at them. Then he disappeared from sight.


	7. The Fire Forest

            As they found their way through the winding paths to the heart of the Fire Forest, their march became more grim and silent. The dim, chill, often rainy world of the Forest affected more than their bodies as everyplace in the Spirit World was wont to do. The atmosphere seemed to seep into their spirits throughout the day. When they stopped to make camp at night, Korra would light a circle of cheery fire around them, and the Firewood would glow and never be consumed. The warmth and flames would strengthen their spirits, waking them up it seemed, and they would talk for a while, lying beside on another for a long time before they finally fell asleep.

            Asami tried to discern whether the Firewood was dead or alive. Branches and even whole limbs would break away easily. They could break it down to size for their fires by hand, and they could simply walk away from the glowing wood when they left. She kept trying to imagine what the place would look like and how it would feel if it were all lit from within. Her heart ached with the idea that it might be too late for most of these trees.

            Korra must have discerned something as the Avatar. She would go to particular, large trees that they came upon. And she would put her palms to the trunk and light up the entire tree with fire. The wood would glow and grow much stronger, harder to break. Surrounding trees would light up, as well, which Korra said she thought was from their roots being entangled. Every time Korra awoke a tree, the sight would reinvigorate their spirits. They made good speed towards the heart of the Firewood.

            Korra could not simply touch the trees here and find their way. So they used a combination of plain old navigation by Iroh’s directions combined with Korra’s sense of the Forest. Once, at night, she lifted herself on a pillar of wind to take a look, and she confirmed that they were on course. A small glow could be seen out ahead of them – the still living heart of the Forest. They never came across any animals, and Asami quickly dismissed the tales of the men who pretended they would be in danger. They made her skeptical when they picked three species that were always seen as scary. That wasn’t how things really worked.

            Their greatest enemy, they discovered, was their own sense of despair. Every day, it seemed to deepen. The hope and happiness of the circle of fire where they slept seemed only a tonic, and Asami suspected that Korra was growing weary. Her fire bending seemed weaker everyday. Asami wondered if the cloud was somehow trying to snuff out Korra’s inner fire, as well. A morning finally came when they both seemed reluctant to start out. They could only be a few days from the heart of the Forest. But then, they would have to combat whatever they found there. Korra stood beneath a tree that she clearly wanted to ignite, but she merely sighed and moved on. Asami came and held her hand out to Korra. They walked much of the day with their hands held, silent and steady in their progress.

            Two nights after this, Asami went to gather rainwater during a slight downpour. When she returned, she found Korra sitting drenched beside a circle of Firewood. She seemed almost in a trance. Asami came and put a hand to Korra’s shoulder. Korra turned to look at her, and her eyes would barely focus.

            “I can’t fire bend anymore,” Korra said.

            To her own astonishment, the idea settled so heavily on Asami that she knelt down beside Korra without deciding that she would. She wanted to encourage Korra to try, as she did not want this to be possible. A night with the grimness of the Forest pressing in on them seemed too much to bear. But she could feel the exhaustion already in Korra’s body. Her hand on Korra’s shoulder caught the feel of her shivering, and she put her hands to her back and chest to feel it more clearly. Korra looked over at her. She had struggled already with an intensity that Asami could only imagine.

            Asami carefully got Korra to her feet and sat her against the trunk of a large tree, where she would not get as soaked. She tied a line and set up their tent to keep the water out. Then she dug a shallow trench around this where their circle of fire should have been. She came back to get Korra who seemed still in some form of a trance.

            “You can still water-bend?” she said, and Korra merely nodded. “Can you strip the water out of our camp?”

            Korra came and drew all the water out of their camp and their clothes with a series of masterful bending maneuvers. They climbed in under their tent. All they had left was wild rice and black split peas, so they could not eat anything without a fire. As they prepared to go to sleep, Asami got an intuitive sense that somehow the bleakness of the Fire Forest was affecting Korra more strongly as the Avatar. They lay down beside one another, and Asami tucked every bit of cloth and even their packs in around them. She settled against Korra with an arm across her chest.

            “You’re still warm,” Asami said to Korra.

            “What do you mean?” Korra asked.

            “Your body – it’s still warm like a fire-bender’s. Like Mako, you know? I think your fire bending is still in there; it’s just been muffled somehow.”

            “I can’t imagine I’ll be strong enough to throw off the clouds.”

            “We don’t know what’s holding them yet. And you’re not here alone.”

            Asami turned Korra’s face toward herself. Korra seemed deeply distraught. Asami touched her face and felt her pulse, suddenly worried that she was growing ill somehow. Her heartbeat was steady. It was her spirit that was being beaten down. She felt her own heart surge in defiance in response.

            “We can’t be more than a day or two away from the heart of the Forest. The wood there is still alive – still burning. We’ll get there Korra.”

            “If we don’t succeed, we’ll never make it out again.”

            Asami knew this was true.

            “We will succeed. We got a lot of people waiting for us back home, you remember. Think about what the Forest will be like when we wake it up again. That’s where we‘ll be before you even know it.”

            Korra seemed to fall asleep without taking much hope from these words. Her face still looked distressed. Asami followed her own advice. She pictured the Forest imbued with living flame again. She meditated on the image. By the time she fell asleep, she imagined she could taste the tea Vulpa gave her made of Firewood on her tongue. She could feel the heat running through her veins.

            Asami knew their situation was desperate the moment she awoke. She leaned up to find Korra lying perfectly still with her eyes open. They looked at one another, but neither of them could find the heart to speak. They slowly packed away their simple camp. Asami took Korra’s hand, and they began walking.

            They kept moving all day by sheer force of will. Korra would stop and lean against a tree on occasion as if winded spiritually. Asami would wait and then take her hand and drag her onward. She wondered every moment now if she were leading them to their deaths. The Forest began to seem like a mass grave. By walking onward, she was burying the two of them. Their loved ones would never find them here. They would search, and no one would be able to carry the news back to them. With thoughts like these flooding her mind, Asami began to wonder what Korra was imagining. The end of the world, she thought. The end of all good things. With that thought, she dragged them onward.

            They would not last another night in the Forest. As the sun sank, Asami focused as hard as she could and merely kept the two of them walking. She used the last of the dry tinder saved for emergencies in their pack to make a weak torch, but this faded out in a matter of hours. She kept them moving, hoping that it would be enough to get them through the night. They stumbled and fell in the dim wood until they were scraped and moving so slowly, Asami imagined them making only a few feet of progress over what felt like a stretch of hours.

            Finally, she realized that she could see the outline of fallen limbs near the forest floor. She looked out ahead of them, and a faint glow seemed to be coming from ahead. She wanted to ask Korra if she could see it, but she had no voice. They were holding hands, and Korra must have sense a new surge of energy in Asami. She looked up, and the two of them ventured onward.

            They came to a tree with a split in the middle. The heartwood inside shone a little. Ahead of them was more light, enough to press through the layers of wood and illuminate the trees faintly. They wandered onwards as if in a dream. The light grew, until they stood in a warm, permeating glow of living Firewood. The desire to stop and rest contended now with a desire to press onward and find brighter burning wood. They kept on for a while longer.

            Asami could feel the heat wanting to drive out the cold that seemed to have worked its way into some deep part of her being. When they came to a clearing, she meant to make camp. She caught site of a house many feet up in the trees. They climbed into it and found themselves alone in a house made of living wood. The branches had somehow been trained to grow into walls. A panel of dark, hard wood hid a slit that allowed heartwood to shine out and illuminate the single room. There was nothing else there. No one living, no dishes, no bedding. The inhabitants must have fled the Forest some time ago.

            Korra sat against a wall and held her head in her hands. Asami climbed back out into the glowing, strange night. She searched for what felt an eternity until she found what she was looking for – tiny, new shoots of Firewood growing on the forest floor. She carefully broke away a single piece from one of the shoots. She came back to find Korra still sitting, perfectly still.

She used a knife and then a spoon to crush the Firewood nearly to a dust in the bottom of a pot. She moved away another wooden slat to open up a vent of heat that went straight into the tree’s heartwood. Then she boiled the Firewood grounds in a bit of water. The smell filled the room, and Korra took her face from her hands.

            Asami poured the impromptu tea into a cup and came to sit beside Korra. She handed her the cup when it felt cool enough, and Korra drank the tea. Asami took a few sips herself, but she could feel now how dramatic the loss had been for Korra as they made their way all these miles into the Forest. She left most of the tea for her.

            When the tea was gone, the two of them lay curled together on the open floor near the seams where the strongest heat came out. The heat in the room continued to work its way into their bodies and only needed time. Korra had shed the frightening look of heaviness that had come over her.

            During the night, a terrible roaring sound like a fierce wind came through the walls. They held onto one another, waiting to see what would happen next. They were beyond feeling any new fear. Nothing happened and the sound faded out. They fell asleep without a word spoken.

 

 


	8. The Avatar State

            Morning had come when Asami awoke. She put some rice and split peas on to cook and climbed down to look about them. The world seemed terribly quiet. They had enough food to last them another three days maybe. If they drove off the clouds, they could make their way out without food. They would have water and warmth. But they would be far too weak to ever make the journey through the dark forest a second time and now without food. They might as well use what they had while they were here and keep up their strength for whatever this quest demanded of them now that they had come to the center of the Forest. She came back up and stirred the cooking food.

            Asami heard Korra sit up behind her and immediately heard the sharp crackle of a strong flame. She turned to see Korra fire-bend momentarily with one hand. When she let it go out, Korra turned to Asami and smiled slightly. Even as fragile as they were, they knew they would go and search the Forest nearby when they had eaten. They were quiet now from exhaustion more than dismay.

            When Asami brought Korra a bowl of breakfast and sat down on the floor beside her, Korra reached and took Asami’s hand. She kissed the back of Asami’s hand, then she turned to see her face.

            “Thanks for getting us this far,” Korra said.

            Asami felt a bit stunned. The touch of Korra’s lips made her body burn such that she wondered if the Firewood tea somehow moved from Korra’s lips through her own skin. She could also tell from Korra’s tone that she did not feel certain yet that they would make it. As Korra started to talk through a plan that in summary meant wandering about in such a way as to neither lose track of this shelter or cover the same ground more than once, Asami found her own thoughts growing heavy and serious. Her mind still rejected the prospect of a bleak, slow ending to both of their lives, but she could feel the shape of this reality at the edge of her mind. She might not be able to hold it off forever. When they had finished eating, Korra stretched her back, and Asami gathered her resolve.

            “Korra,” Asami said. “There’s something I should tell you.”

            Korra turned towards her with an open, curious look. Asami stalled. Her mind flashed over about five different ways she could say that she was in love with Korra, and for some reason, looking at Korra, she could immediately feel how awkward that might get between them. Korra would be taken by surprise regardless of how she told her, regardless of how she felt. In only a few seconds, Asami made up her mind. She moved to her knees and pushed the hair out of her face, and she leaned in and kissed Korra.

            She meant to lean in and kiss her once, somewhat quickly, and leave it at that. They could head out and not talk about it at all if they did not find the words. Instead, Asami was taken by surprise herself. Korra caught Asami by the arms, as if on instinct. As they kissed, an action that seemed strangely graceful and comfortable even at the start, Korra somehow managed to drag Asami forward. She was sitting and leaning across Korra’s lap, and she could feel Korra’s hands on her back even as she felt Korra’s jaw and neck and the shape of her collarbones under her own hands.

            Korra moved Asami’s hair away from her face. Asami could swear that she could taste the Firewood tea in their kiss and something more besides, something bright and purer than cold, newly emerged spring water. Korra pulled Asami close to her chest, and Asami heard herself make a slight moan of pleasure in response.

            They kissed for what felt an incredibly long time for how abrupt it all felt despite how easy it was. They might have kept on kissing all day, Asami thought with a bit of a start, in other circumstances. They rested with their foreheads against one another’s for a long moment afterwards. Asami felt deeply relieved, and the resolve in her heart settled on their mission again. A new quiet seemed to have filled the room when she leaned back.

            They moved as quickly and as steadily as they could the Forest that day. They ventured out in ever-broadening circles, making certain they could find their shelter again. They covered a lot of ground, but they did not find anything of notice. When the sun started to fade, and then the trees began to fade after, they set markers to find their way back to where they stopped and cut back to spend the night in the tree house. Exhausted, they ate and curled up together again to sleep, on their blankets this time.

            The strange roaring sound from the night before woke them. They climbed out onto the roof to try to see. They could tell the direction of the sound – north and a little east. They could just make out a shimmer among the lights of the Forest there, but the cloud covering kept them from seeing anything well. When the sound died out, they climbed back down.

            “Well, we know where to start tomorrow,” Asami said.

            “I hope whoever it is feels ready for a fight,” Korra said.

            Asami smiled faintly. It really would be a relief to find an enemy. The night was incredibly quiet again. She felt herself wanting to shiver with the chill of looking out over the Forest a moment before. They were in a small pocket of life amidst the seemingly dead wood. That reality might feel easy to forget in the warmth of this place, but it was still real nonetheless. She noticed Korra watching her expression, knowing exactly what she was thinking.

            Korra came and embraced Asami. They held onto one another for a long time. Korra brought their foreheads together again like they had been early that day when they had first kissed.

            “We’ll get through this,” Korra said.

            Asami gripped Korra’s arms with a firm resolve. They came to lie down again, but they were both grown a bit restless despite the immense feeling of exhaustion that seemed to settle onto them like a weight. Asami turned onto her side and reached down to put her hand on Korra’s hip. She led Korra to turn over, as well. They kissed for what might have been an hour in the dark, and Asami let her hand run slowly over Korra from her hair and neck all the way down to her thigh as many times as she could. They eventually grew exhausted and fell asleep again.

            In the morning, they ate and headed out in the direction of the sound. They found nothing of interest until past midday. Both of them began to doubt their line of direction, but neither of them said anything. Then they found a clearing with an imperfect circle of plain, gray stones in the center of it. Asami pointed to the trees. They were shaped strangely, as if their branches were turned away from the clearing. They should have been reaching out to capture the light.

            “Maybe this is it,” Asami said. “Although I can’t say what ‘it’ is.”

            They found runes written on all of the stones. Korra touched them but could not decipher anything. They might have wandered on, but they both thought this had to be something.

            “Perhaps it’s an ancient temple of some sort,” Korra said.

            “Can you go into the Avatar state?” Asami asked.

            “What? Why?” Korra asked suddenly fearful and taking up a fighting stance.  

            “I don’t know. To see things differently? Maybe Raava will know what to do?”

            “Oh, uh… I don’t really know how to just call it out like that. I think the Avatar state is mostly a fighting thing.”

            “How can that be true? What about when you gave everyone back their bending after Amon took it?”

            “That’s a good point. I always thought that was more Aang’s spirit than mine. But maybe you’re right.”

            “Aren’t they the same spirit, you and Aang?”

            “Mmm… yes? No?”

            Asami rubbed her eyes and sat down on a stone. Korra did some bending and tried to conjure the Avatar state. She sat down and meditated in silence for a long span of time. Asami started to wander around the stones and runes once more. She took a notebook of good paper and a pen out of her bag. She sketched the circle and each of the runes on the stones, carefully. Her mind wandered over old, hazy bits of information. She had conjured up one useful thought when Korra finally rose. She shrugged at Asami, no Avatar state forthcoming.

            “Can you try to break one of the stones?” Asami asked.

            “Is that a good idea, you think?” Korra asked.

            Before Asami even answered, Korra tried to lift one of the stones. She struggled and became intensely focused. She wound up tearing the earth around the stone up and slinging this to the side. She went and actually punched and kicked the stone for a while, using fire- and air-bending with her strikes and smashing other stones against it. Korra stood winded after the onslaught.

            “I remembered something from the stories I used to read,” Asami said. “There were these Ancient-Stones, and they came into being before everything else, even before time. So nothing created after time can destroy them, not even time itself. It’s no so much that they’re hard, they’re impermeable.

            “Now you tell me.”

            “I was thinking you’d try to break off a little chip of stone or something.”

            “Oh,” Korra said and rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.

            “And I remember reading that magic written onto the stones would take on a lasting power. There was a story of a sage who wrote runes to gain wisdom and long life and became eternal. When the sage grew tired and wanted to be released, the only choice was to leave the Spirit World. Otherwise, the magic written on the Ancient-Stones would never have faded away.”

            “Keraphim, I remember her from stories! Even in the material world, she lived to be a hundred and thirty-five years old.”

            “So if you can’t destroy them… how do we blot out the magic?”

            “We can’t move them either, so we can’t just put them somewhere harmless or take them into the material world.”

            “Maybe we can contend with the magic itself, instead of the stones? The magic is far younger. And they can’t be entwined.”

            “But what is the magic? What does it do?”

            “Knowing where it came from might help us. There must be someone in the Spirit World who knows, but they’re far away from here.”

            “Come on,” Asami said. “Let’s head back for the night and think it over. We have a couple more days to figure it out.”

            For the first time in longer than they could remember, they walked slowly along their way back. They sat and ate what was very nearly the last of their food. They heated more water and got clean. Korra used water and air bending to clean their clothes. At the same time that her body felt relieved from even so little rest and comfort, Asami’s mind felt pressed to keep mulling over the circle of stones. She kept trying to clear her mind, as she started to put on her clothes. She knew to let her thoughts settle into the back of her mind, where they could drag up something new. But their situation seemed dire, so it was difficult.

            Before she got fully dressed, Korra sat and wrapped her knuckles and tied one of her ankles. She had injured herself fighting the stone earlier, even though Asami had not noticed. She had not even limped on the way back, but she was tying her ankle carefully now. Korra was focused on her own body and did not notice Asami watching, so Asami kept on looking at her. Asami felt her heart starting to race as she watched Korra. She felt the tether of her thoughts about stones slip and her mind snatch at those thoughts again. But she ought to let go. She felt her eyes well at the thought of what might happen in the coming days. She had faith that they would make it, but nothing was certain.

            She found her mind settling on a thought of Korra in her arms the night before. That memory felt certain. Korra finished with her ankle and tested it by pressing her foot to the floor. She stood and noticed Asami watching her, as they caught one another’s eye. They shared much more than could have been spoken in words.

            Korra finally broke their gaze and looked down. Asami was wearing a long shirt, but her legs were still bare. Korra crossed the room to come to her, and she took Asami’s shirt in both hands near the bottom. She lifted the shirt, slowly and carefully, and Asami raised her arms to let her take it off. Asami felt her eyes wanting to close. A rush of heat burned in her face and throat, and a heat that might have been the same or different pooled in her lower stomach. Korra pulled their bodies together, and they kissed. And suddenly, Asami was not embarrassed anymore. Her entire body relaxed, and the shift nearly made her shiver in Korra’s arms.

            Within a minute, she found herself holding Korra’s face in her hands, drawing her in closer so that they would kiss even harder. Her heart was pounding such that it felt like a sound just beneath her own ears. Korra leaned down and kissed the side of her neck. Asami moved her hair away and held onto Korra’s shoulders.

            Korra leaned back a little with her eyes closed, and Asami held Korra’s face in her hands for a long moment. Korra turned and sat down on the blankets. Asami stepped over her and hesitated. Korra was leaning back on her arms, and she noticed Asami stall. She sat up quickly and pulled at the back of Asami’s knees. Asami found herself toppling into Korra’s lap but landing somewhat softly. They both laughed a little.

            “Is this okay?” Korra asked, curious over Asami’s hesitation.

            “I think I’m just a little overwhelmed,” Asami said.

            “I won’t be too rough,” Korra said with a benign expression.

            Asami burst into a laugh and shook her head.

            “I mean more emotionally. Physically, I’m doing _great_.”

            “Well, we are in the midst of a life or death situation.”

            “We’ve pretty much always been in the midst of life or death situations. We’ve just never been kissing during any of them before.”

            “I’m about to be doing more than kissing, unless you want me to ease back.”

            Asami’s mind actually hurt. She felt like she was being pulled in more than one direction. Korra had her arms around her waist and was waiting patiently. But out the slightest sign from Asami, she was clearly about to make love to her. Maybe she should not have felt so surprised – her body certainly seemed to think this was a long time coming. But her mind seemed a bit stunned.

            “Are we in love with each other?” Asami asked without thinking it through.

            “I’ve known that for ages,” Korra said. “I’ve just been trying to figure out if we were going to be lovers or not. At this point, I’d definitely say we are.”

            Asami cracked up fully at this. They hugged one another, and Asami felt Korra rocking them back and forth gently. Asami leaned back, and they kissed again. Her thoughts seemed to line up, and everything felt right to her then. Soon, she lost her capacity for thinking in words entirely as Korra took up a complete focus on her body, turned them, and ended up leaning into her. She found herself naked and Korra leaning down to kiss her breasts, holding her by her side and the back of her neck, before she could even decide what to do next.

            She got Korra to come lay down beside her and tangled their legs together. She started to undo the wrap around Korra’s chest, and Korra held herself up on one arm and used the other hand to help her. The wrap got stuck or tangled, and Korra made a frustrated sound and got rid of it with a rapid little flurry of air bending. She leaned down to kiss Asami at once, and their naked chests pressed together. Asami’s body became heavy and profoundly still. She felt her hand grip Korra’s hair, and she drew Korra’s head back and kissed her without any reserve now. She heard Korra moan slightly at the feel of this.

            They ended up in a kind of tangle for a long while, too excited by one another to do anything except kiss and touch with something akin to urgency. Asami got back enough to focus to untie the bows and take off the rest of Korra’s clothes. She came over Korra with their bodies stretched out against one another’s. They kissed until all sense of time was lost to them. Korra’s hand came between Asami’s legs, making her draw in her breath and almost let go of their kiss. Asami kissed her deeper instead. Korra used air bending and filled her body, and Asami broke from their kiss then to gasp. Korra held her hard and kept on, until Asami leaned down and rested her head on her own wrist. Korra carefully turned Asami over onto her side and pressed in close to her.

            Asami tangled their legs together again and managed to get her hands on Korra. Even as Asami grew overwhelmed, she could not be distracted from touching Korra. The feel of Korra’s body and the sound of her voice as she responded to Asami’s touch made Asami feel almost wild and nearly mad with desire. Even in the midst of the encounter, she knew that she had not experienced anything like this before in life. What she felt for Korra was something entirely new and profound for her.

            Soon, the purest beams of white light shot through the dim, red glow that filled the room. They were coming from Korra, and Asami could feel the light rush through her own hands on Korra and through her own body. At the feel of this, Asami gasped in a breath of air by instinct, and a bright energy seemed to pour into her along with the rush of air. She found herself in some altered state of being. The light seemed to touch and permeate every part of her, the way intense sunlight seemed to reach inside the body, but without the discomfort of sharp heat. As the light defined the edges of her being perfectly and pushed back all else, blurred the rest of existence into the surrounding dimness, Asami had the most profound experience of self alongside the most vivid experience of Korra - Korra as she existed beyond sight and well beyond words.

            By the time the light faded out, Asami found herself exhausted with a shockingly profound satisfaction. Only when she finally felt her hands pressing distinctly to Korra’s skin did she feel the two of them to be there in the room again. She pulled Korra close and kissed her with more passion than she had ever felt in her life.

            They kissed for what might have been hours. They kissed until they were both nearly asleep, their minds crowded with dreamlike thoughts. They had their hands tangled together between the two of them. And finally, they faded off to sleep.

            They both found themselves sitting up and suddenly awake. The roaring sound was coming through the walls of the house. The sound seemed to have mingled itself with their dreams, and they waited for the sound to fade out.

            “I saw Zaheer in a dream,” Korra said, “He was standing in the circle of stones with a handful of others. He was drawing the runes on the stones with a paint that was glowing and golden, some kind of magic in and of itself. The others were chanting incantations.”

            “I was just dreaming of a machine that would harness the power of wind and turn it into electricity.”

            “Winds are capturing the clouds.”

            “That’s why they slowly dissipated during the day, then they’re gathered together again in the morning.”

            “Maybe I can use air-bending to fight just the magic, not the stones.”

            “I think that might work. If not, we can stay until nightfall and wait for the winds to come.”

            They lay back down and let their excitement slowly fade out. They fell asleep again in one another’s arms. And sleep felt lighter and richer with their hope renewed.

            They awoke early the next morning, and they ate quickly and set out. As they walked the distance to the clearing, Asami could feel the determination in Korra’s step. Korra shattered a rock at one point, just to let off some steam. Asami punched her shoulder, and Korra gave her a quick half-grin.

            “I guess I am still fighting old enemies,” Korra said and huffed. “Toff would be disappointed in me.”

            “Why is that?” Asami asked.

            “She said you can’t fight new enemies if you’re still fighting old ones. That was one of her lessons for me back in the swamp, when I was trying to get over the Red Lotus’s poison.”

            “Did it help?”

            “You know, I’m not sure it did.”

            “You can defeat enemies, but the damage they did is still there. I’ve been fighting my father for years. I think battles get too much recognition. Healing work is often the hardest work, and it gets undermined.”

            She finished this thought as they found the clearing again. Korra stepped out into the middle of the circle. Asami gave her a nod, then hid herself behind a large tree. Korra slowly built up a swirl of air. She raised it up into the sky, and the spirals of wind began to separate the clouds. The runes on the Ancient-Stones shone out, and a wind began to flow around the circle of stones. This grew until the roaring from the nights before was sounding in the clearing, and the currents of air Korra sustained began to rival with the torrents of air flowing up from the stones.

            The two forces grew in intensity, until Asami almost feared to watch. She saw Korra starting to lose her strength, then the brilliant light of Raava shone out of her body. The Avatar began to contend with the magic on the stones not only with wind but with streams of fire, water, and earth as well. The runes were lifted from the stones and dissipated, and Korra slowly came to the ground. She sent up one final burst of wind the pierced through the clouds. The sun shone down into the clearing in a brilliant beam of light.

            Asami came out into the clearing. They remained there, staring up at the sky as it rapidly began to clear, the clouds fading and scattering into the distance. The sun dazzled their eyes and almost hurt, but no sight could have been more welcome. Asami burst into tears, and she dried her eyes on the backs of her gloves. She could feel as much as see the trees all around them capturing the light. A strange cry pierced the air, and Asami saw flying creatures slip through the remaining thin tatters of clouds.

            “Phoenixes!” Korra shouted in excitement. “They’ll carry us out!”

            Korra turned to Asami in delight. The sight of Asami seemed to catch her notice fully. And Asami found herself suddenly being snatched around the waist. Korra lifted her up off the ground and spun her around once with a triumphant hoot. Asami braced herself on Korra’s shoulders, laughing when she caught her breath. Then without putting her down, Korra leaned back to see Asami’s face. And they shared a long, unhurried kiss in the midst of their triumph.


End file.
